PONDA: Nearly 200 villagers of Panchwadi, along with the local MLA Mr Mahadev Naik, on Monday gathered at the Ponda Collectorate office and amidst shouting of slogans, they walked up to the Block Development Officer, Mr Arvind Kuttkar and submitted a memorandum asking him to take immediate action against the panchayat secretary for his alleged “unlawful conduct of proceedings at the panchayat gram sabha” held on Sunday,

 which witnessed confusion among the villagers over the controversial issue of a mining project.
These agitated villagers accused six panchayat members of supporting the mining project of construction of a loading bunder at Panchwadi and a by-pass road from Codli to Panchwadi and also said that these six were controlled by the strong police posse at the gate. The villagers demanded that the resolutions taken up during the gram sabha on November 22, 2009, and on February 7, 2010, pertaining to the mining issue be declared null and void and that the authorities concerned should either disqualify the deputy sarpanch or he be removed for the alleged gross misuse of powers.
The villagers also demanded that the panchayat secretary, Mr Pradeep Naik should not be allowed in the panchayat office from Tuesday as “he blatantly falsified the records of the panchayat proceedings in order to favour some vested interests.” “He should be suspended with immediate effect for his involvement in the conspiracy to defraud the Panchayati Raj Act and for misusing the powers,” they alleged further stating that the panchayat secretary had left the office wide open and fled from the scene irresponsibly on Sunday.
Highlighting that the gram sabha was not held as per the agenda by the panchayat secretary and the deputy sarpanch, Mr John Braganza who chaired the meeting in absence of the sarpanch, Ms Viana Rodrigues, the villagers said that the minutes of Nov 22 gram sabha were not confirmed and without all this both switched on to the controversial resolution to support mining project, despite the fact that majority of the villagers were opposed to the issue.
The villagers also asked the BDO about the report of the observer (of the BDO) who had attended the gram sabha. They grilled the observer when he said that he did not count the number of hands raised in support of the proposal for the mining road. The observer later said that he had observed that majority of the villagers were mum on the proposal.
After the delegation dispersed from the BDO office, Mr Kuttkar informed ‘The Navhind Times’ that inquiries would be conducted and necessary actions against the panchayat secretary will be taken after the reports are submitted to the director of Panchayats.
Meanwhile Mr Alladin Shaikh, the owner of the buses which carried the Panchwadi villagers to Ponda to submit their memorandum to the BDO, complained to the Ponda police that he was threatened by an unknown person over his mobile phone that both of his buses would be burnt and that he would be killed.
The complainant said in his complaint that “on Feb 8, my buses were engaged for a trip from Panchwadi to Ponda and as I was coming back with these villagers, I received a phone call on my cell and the caller threatened me with dire consequences. I gave the caller’s number, recorded on my cell, to the police for action.”